Apple reported strong quarterly earnings on Tuesday, boosted by record Macintosh computer and iPhone sales.

Strong sales of new and old products alike led Microsoft to its fastest first-quarter growth in seven years, with the company reporting growth in all five business segments and both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) that beat analyst expectations.

Microsoft Corp. expects to take an earnings charge of over US$1 billion for the quarter that ended in June related to expenses it will incur fixing faulty Xbox 360 machines.

Ten days before it is due to report earnings, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) on Monday warned investors that it would restructure its business model in reaction to a steep drop in quarterly revenue.

Still gasping from the resignation of its chief executive in January and an ongoing investigation of its accounting practices, Dell Inc. reported fourth quarter profits of US$673 million, down sharply from the $1 billion it reported for the same period last year.

Hewlett-Packard Co. topped Wall Street's revenue and earnings expectations in the first quarter of its 2007 fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Inc. posted net income of US$1.9 billion, or $0.31 per share, on revenue of $8.4 billion in its fiscal second quarter financial results reported Tuesday, exceeding revenue but matching earnings per share estimates of analysts.

2006 was a year of constant motion for IT, as regulatory imperatives and yearnings for business agility made balancing today's urgencies and tomorrow's priorities an arduous task.

In an effort to rebound from disappointing results in its first quarter earnings, Dell Inc. will begin to act more as a bank, lending customers money so they can afford to buy more PCs.

Yahoo Inc. exceeded Wall Street's revenue expectations and met the earnings per share forecast in its first quarter, ended March 31, 2006, the Sunnyvale, California, company announced Tuesday.

As earnings season wound down this week an upbeat forecast from Cisco Systems Inc. sparked a jump in trading in IT, while news of shakeups at Borland Software Corp. and Gateway Inc. caused concern for technology investors.